


uncooperative screws and the rain

by acooleg



Series: an idiot's guide to pokémon: galar edition [5]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Angst, Confessions, Crying, F/M, thirst turns into sadness, unsatisfying ending fyi, who are we kidding this is a self insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:42:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21844621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acooleg/pseuds/acooleg
Summary: only an idiot falls in love with a man that has fanart
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Reader
Series: an idiot's guide to pokémon: galar edition [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1574494
Comments: 11
Kudos: 90





	uncooperative screws and the rain

**Author's Note:**

> hey do you want to be sad while reading? listen to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJx6-YIaHo0) while reading

It had started out as dumb curiosity. It stemmed from where she had seen people had drawn fanart of Leon on Pokégram, capturing him in styles and likenesses that showed off just how cool he always looked. She would scroll through pages and pages of gorgeous works of the man, thumb tap-tap-tapping away on the screen as she liked every single one.

And then, there was one risque piece of fanart. Based off of an ad he had participated in, where he laid a certain way and gave the camera The Eyes™. Someone had recreated it but he was shirtless and she couldn't stop staring at it. She had to close her eyes and turn Pokégram off, telling her Rotom to delete the last day's worth of liked photos. She wouldn't scar the poor thing but making it watch her thirst over him.

She had collected herself, made herself some dinner, walked her Pokémon around camp, and then turned in for the night. Her Pokémon gathered at her sides, everyone snuggling for warmth and snoring as the sky got darker and darker. As her Thievul snored next to her ear, she stared at the roof of her Fairy pink tent and thought critically.

It had been really nice to look at.

Like, _really_ nice to look at. The artist had done an excellent rendition of Leon, right down to his stupid beard. He had looked so pretty, too. Soft lighting, wisps of hair framing his face, The Eyes™ focused intently… And him being shirtless? Well, that was the _pièce de résistance._

What if it had actually been him, in that pic? What if he had been shirtless? What if that was a picture just for her--

That thought had made her hot. Too hot to stay in the tent.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she sat up in her tent. She lifted her Boltund's head from her stomach, her Ninetale's paws from her legs, and managed to get her Dreepy untangled from her hair and snuggled into her Frosmoth's fur. She had started to peel the sleeping bag off of her legs when she heard the soft chirping of her Hatterene.

The Forest Witch Pokémon was staring at her, tucked in the corner of the tent and wrapped tightly in her husk. She chirped again, tilting her head ever so slightly. A question.

"I'm stepping out for a second," her trainer explained softly, tugging her boots on after zipping up her jacket. More chirping. They had spent enough time around one another to understand what was being asked. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I'll be okay. I'm not gonna go too far, so no one needs to come with me. I'm just gonna go cool off."

There was a second of silence as the woman reached for her bag, digging around for her phone. Not her Rotom phone. The one she had gotten back in Alola, that didn't have a whole other sentient being running it. Sure, it was slower and a little less reliable, but she wouldn't be scarring a living thing by what her dumb curiosity was about to do.

There was a sharp pressure in the front of her head, feeling like thousands of needles were stabbing all at once. 'LeeeeOnn?' whispered an unsure voice in her head, one that wasn't her own. The pressure in her head vibrated with it, sharp and painful and too much. Was it because of the presence in her head, or because she knew what that presence was asking?

_Does this have something to do with Leon?_

Steel blue eyes turned to Hatterene, who was still staring at her, unblinking and focused. The claws on the tentacle from the back of her head were stretching and flexing with Psychic energy. "Dallas, I love you, but I don't want to have this conversation. Don't… don't try to use telepathy with me right now, please."

She chirped a couple more times and the pressure disappeared. Dark eyes glanced to the still sleeping pile of Pokémon, then back to her trainer. Another question.

"Man the fort for me while I'm gone, yeah?" And the Silent Pokémon nodded, closing her eyes but not sleeping. She had learned early on, when Dallas was still a Hatenna, that this was how she felt the world around her.

Carefully, she unzipped her tent and stepped out. She shivered as she closed it back up, quiet as she could be. Her team needed to be well rested for whatever was thrown their way tomorrow, and she wouldn't sacrifice that by waking them up because she was being stupid and antsy.

They had hunkered down along the Motostoke Riverbank, far enough away from the grass that most wild Pokémon wouldn't try to approach them. The moonlight danced across the waves of the river, casting the rays in dozens of different directions and making it look like the sky itself. She looked up at the moon itself, seeing how the dark clouds rolled in front of it and occasionally blotted out its light. It was pretty.

She stepped towards the water without thinking, crossing the distance to the shore in a few large steps. Her old phone was clenched tightly in her hand as she sat on the ground, thankful that she had chosen to wear her long fleece pajamas. She could already feel how sweaty her palms were and she hadn't even searched for anything dumb yet.

She kicked her legs out in front of her and watched the water move. She set the phone in her lap and thought.

If she would just be honest with herself, with the feelings she didn't know what to do with, she'd probably be so much better. She wouldn't be out in the middle of the Wild Area about to look up NSFW fanart of the guy she probably liked. She'd still be in the Wild Area, mind you, but not thirsty as fuck, because she would've shared her feelings and gotten rejected. It's way easier to not be horny for someone when they don't like you. But she didn't know if he _didn't_ like her that way and so there was a chance.

It was Schrodeinger's Chance. He simultaneously returned and did not return her feelings as long as she didn't ask about it. And she was too weak to ask for real so she was left in romantic limbo.

"Ah, fuck it." She unlocked her old phone, trying to forget the memories associated with the wallpaper as she pulled up the browser. Should she search in incognito? She hardly ever used this phone. But what if someone needed to use it? The likelihood was low. But what if?

Better safe than sorry. 

She opened up an incognito browser and went to the search bar. Her fingers shook and she could already feel the ashamed blush start to form on her cheeks.

If she did this, she was going to have to deal with the consequences, wasn't she?

Couldn't she just be happy with their friendship? If she really did this, if she let her body win out over her heart and her mind, she knew she would see him differently from then on. More different than she had already started to see him. She couldn't stay platonic. She _wouldn't_ be able to stay platonic with him. She'd get weird and flirty and off putting and he'd _never want to be around her ever again._

She wouldn't be able to handle that. She'd have to run away, like she did when she saw Red in Sinnoh all those years ago.

Her shaking thumbs spelled out his name. 'L-E-O-N.' She had to backspace a few times because she kept hitting the wrong letters. The search bar's autofill stepped in and she took a second to look at the other searches.

**Leon  
Leon champion win rate  
Leon champion age  
Leon champion controversial ad  
Leon champion sexy ad  
Leon champion single  
Leon champion fanart  
Leon champion fanart rule 34  
Leon champion leaked nudes**

_Nudes._

Her cheeks burned brightly as she read over it, her whole body on fire despite the chill that had set in on her. Fuck, fuck. She desperately wanted to see that and she hated it. He didn't seem like the type of guy to take nudes, even less so the type to send them to someone that would leak them.

But then again, she didn't seem like the type to be almost-searching up smut of the famed Champion of Galar. Of her friend.

Of _Leon._

A shaky breath escaped her mouth and she threw the phone to the ground, holding her head in her hands. "What's wrong with you!?" she hissed to herself, digging her hands into her hair and and tugging softly. "You're not some fucking freak that just… that just _disrespects_ somebody like that!"

He was her friend. He had done nothing but treat her with respect since she'd come to Galar, taking time out of his busy schedule to help set her on the best path. He took care of her, checked in on her and her League Challenge. He gave her her fucking _Dreepy egg!_ The one that _she_ hatched herself, the one that she doted on and loved!

He wasn't just some figure for her to lust over!

But he _wasn't_ a figure. He was her friend. He was a _person!_ She saw sides of him that the cameras hadn't; she saw how wonderfully intense he could get when talking about the people of Galar, saw how intensely he cared about the kids that looked up to him -- she saw him _laugh!_ Not those handsome laughs he delivered on camera, but the ones that shook his full body, that made him nearly choke as he gasped for air.

"This is the worst thing ever," she mumbled, feeling the intensity of her emotions well up in her eyes. Fat tears dripped down her cheeks and she sniffed loudly. "Stop being a baby! You've done so much. You've faced scarier things! And you can't even tell a boy you _like him!?_ "

She forgot that ~~loving~~ liking someone could hurt. Was this how her mother felt all the time? When she would sit by the door and stare out at the world, waiting for her father to come home? Did she feel conflicted and hurt and warm all at the same time, too?

The cool night air blew across her cheeks and the moonbeams still caught the ripples of the water. She rubbed her eyes, making the skin there sting even more. She had told herself a long time ago that she wouldn't cry sad tears, and she especially wouldn't cry sad tears _over_ someone.

It was pathetic, to cry over a boy.

But he wasn't a boy, and she wasn't a girl. She wasn't some bright eyed little girl stepping out to take on her first adventure, looking at the world with the naivety of someone that hadn't seen cities crumble at the hands of mythical Pokémon. She was twenty-one, a veteran trainer that still wandered the world. She knew what she was doing, and so did he.

She wasn't getting any younger and that was scary, too.

She saw girls like Sonia, who had done their challenge and moved on. Sonia was smart, and pretty, and cool. She knew what was what in the world and was up to date on most everything.

It was pathetic, but she was jealous because Sonia knew how to _use a Rotom phone._

Rotom phones had been out for years and she had only just recently found out because she was forced to use one. She had been wandering the world with her brother for so long that she had missed great leaps in technological advancements. She had missed incredible news.

She had missed so much.

And now, she sat in the dirt crying because she was attracted to a man that was basically perfect.

She hiccupped and reached for her old phone again. Once more, she typed in his name. 'L-E-O-N.' But instead of searching up something to satiate some part of herself, she clicked on his number.

(Sonia had set it up so her contacts were linked on both phones, because she hadn't been able to figure it out herself.)

It was super late. He wouldn't be awake. It was fine. She'd just listen to his voicemail like the pathetic lady she was and then hang up. His voice helped to keep her calm. And honestly? She just needed to hear it for a second. Hear _him._

It rang once before clicking. He must've hit the end call button.

"'ello?" his tired voice asked and she froze, voice caught in her throat. He muttered her name before yawning, asking ever so softly, "Are you there?"

It felt like squeezing something through a tube that was too small, but she managed to get her voice out. "Yeah. I'm sorry. It's late." She could hear the warble in her voice, knew it wasn't where it should be to not worry him. "I just… needed to hear your voice."

She sniffed. Fuck, fuck, this was happening, wasn't it?

"What's wrong?" He was definitely awake, judging by how alert he suddenly was. "Do you need me? Are you okay?"

She barked out a wet laugh, already feeling the sad tears dripping down her cheeks again. "I'm okay. I'm just… overwhelmed." There. That was vague enough that he could misinterpret it a thousand ways.

Did she want him to? Or did she just want to rip the bandaid off of this festering cut and clean it out already?

"What's wrong? I can't help you if you don't talk to me." He sounded so worried. Fuck, she had gotten so lucky with being related to the fucking Chairman. Uncle really did have a wonderful Champion. And she was--

She was so lucky to have him as her friend.

It swelled up in her chest, causing her to finally break and let out a harsh sob. She was choking on her love and it hurt. "L-Lee," she started, but had to cut herself off and rub her eyes. She couldn't see the moonlight anymore. It was so cold.

"Hey, hey, stick with me. Where are you? Let me come find you. Are you in Hammerlocke? Motostoke?" His voice was shaking, too. She really had worried him.

"You're so fucking dumb," she laughed again, muffled through her tears. "Do you even know w-what time it is? W-why would you answer my call? You should go back to bed."

"I can't do that when you're _crying._ "

"You're--" Her voice struggled against her tears, tearing at her windpipe. "--you're too sweet, Leon."

His voice was soft. "Listen, please, just talk to me?"

Her hands were shaking again. She could be dramatic. She could throw her phone into the water and run away, disappearing in the night. All she'd have to do is tear herself from this place, from this wonderful region and its wonderful people. She'd have to run without telling her brother, her friends.

She couldn't imagine how Hop would react if she ran away. That boy was her pride and joy. She felt such an attachment to him...

She didn't want to try and imagine how Leon would react.

So she didn't throw her phone.

Her everything hurt the more she tried to keep whatever was in her chest from bursting. She hated the hurt. She sucked in air and gripped the phone so tightly it cracked.

"I realized that… that I love you."


End file.
